Homemade Catsup (or Ketchup)

Either way homemade catsup is really easy and really good.

Recently, I’ve been on this theme of trying almost everything I can find homemade. Hint – coming soon, mustard and crackers among other things.

My goal is to make as much as I can from scratch and buy as little as I can from the store.

Just like garden grown veggies have so much more flavor than their store bought counterpart, in my opinion so does homemade condiments like catsup and homemade sweet pickles.

Regardless of what it is if it’s homegrown or homemade, it’s always so much better than what you get in the stores.

And if it’s homemade it’s a bonus, or maybe it’s the point of it, that you know what every single ingredient is you put into it.

Store bought tomatoes or home grown

In this spirit, every homemade catsup recipe I came across called for tomato paste. I rarely have tomato paste since you usually only use a tablespoon or 2 and I end up throwing it away.

But, this year I have a garden and I’m beginning to get a TON of tomatoes.

And, this year for my birthday, my awesome husband bought me the Cadillac of dehydrators, an Excalibur Dehydrator. I’ve wanted this thing for years, but it costs so much I wouldn’t buy it for myself.

Anyway, this means I’ve been dehydrating tomatoes. I knew there had to be a way to use those for this recipe.

So I searched the net and finally found a ratio method for mixing dehydrated tomatoes to water for paste and for sauce.

Just so you know…..it’s a 1:1 ratio for paste and a 2:1 water to dehydrated tomatoes for sauce.

So now I’m excited. Dehydrated tomatoes take up WAY less space than canned tomatoes. And this means I don’t have to can so many tomatoes….BONUS!!

Okay, back on track for homemade catsup.

To ferment or not to ferment

Most of the recipes I found said I could ferment them or not. As a general rule, we don’t use a lot of catsup, so I kinda wanted to ferment just so it would last longer.

Recently, I also bought myself some fermenting lids so I could ferment more. So since I had those I thought I would go ahead and give the fermented catsup a try.

From what I was reading, the recipe is no different either way. So, that made it easy.

Homemade Catsup

Making homemade catsup truly is one of the easiest things you could ever make. And best of all it can be made to suit your tastes. As you mix the ingredients, all you have to do is continue to taste it and adjust it to what you like best.

Although I read through about 3 or 4 different recipes, this is the one I settled on. First because I liked the ingredients and second, because I’ve liked most of the recipes I’ve found on her site so I trusted it would be good.

This recipe comes from theprairiehomestead.com. If you haven’t been there yet, you should check it out. She had a ton of great stuff there.

Ingredients:

• 12 oz or 1.5 cups of tomato paste
• 3 TBL of maple syrup or raw honey
• 3 TBL of raw vinegar
• 2 TBLS of whey or brine from an existing ferment***
• 1/4 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/8 tsp black pepper
• 1/8 tsp allspice**

*** You only need this ingredient if you plan on fermenting your catsup. I had just made some sauerkraut, so I used some of the brine from that.

**I didn’t have allspice, so I found a mixture you can use to make a homemade version. To make 1 tsp of allspice you use 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground clove and a pinch of ground nutmeg.

Instructions:

Mix all of your ingredients in a bowl. If you are not going to ferment it, then put it in the refrigerator and your done. I’d let it sit for a few days just so all the flavors blend well.

If you’re going to ferment, then put your catsup in a pint jar, cover it with a fermenting lid, an airlock or a regular lid. If you use a regular lid, you need to remember to burp it either daily or a few times a day to let the fermenting gases escape.

Let it sit on your counter for about 3 days and then put a regular lid on it and move it to your refrigerator.

That’s it. It just doesn’t get any easier.

Another thing you’ll notice with this recipe is there is no sugar. I suppose you could use sugar if you wanted to in place of the honey or maple syrup. I wouldn’t know why, but you could if you wanted to.

You can adjust these spices to whatever taste you like. You could even add a touch of hot sauce if that’s something you might like. The possibilities of the different tastes you could come up with are endless.

So there you have it, really easy homemade catsup. I hope you give it a try. I know I’ll not be buying it from the store anymore. You may decide the same thing.

If you find you want to make your own catsup, let me know in the comments below how it turns out. If you change up the recipe, I’d love to hear how. I’d love it if you would post pictures of what you make.

Be sure to subscribe to get something new in your inbox every week. Canning season is coming up, I have a new dehydrator and I have several new recipes I’m itching to make, you won’t want to miss what’s coming.

Until next time-

Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey